“On this important occasion, we recall that the death penalty is a violation of human rights as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and call for an end to state-sanctioned capital punishment.”

"Shahram Amiri had access to the system's top secrets and had gotten connected with our number one enemy the Great Satan," Iranian judicial spokesman Hojjat al-Eslam Mehdi Mohseni-Ejehei told reporters Sunday, according to state news agency IRNA.

Amiri's case had been reviewed by the Iranian high court, which upheld the conviction, according to Mohseni-Ejehei. "The Iranian High Court reviewed this decision with extreme care given the allegations of espionage," he said.

Titled “Moving Away from the Death Penalty – The Voices of Victim’s Families”, the event was presided over by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Prince Zeid Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, opened the event with a message from the United Nations Secretary-General. Prince Zeid said, “The United Nations has just adopted a new vision for sustainable development that aims for a life of dignity for all people.

Broward County prosecutor Gregg Rossman said Moscatiello hired a mob hit man to fatally shoot Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis in 2001 during a dispute over the SunCruz Casinos fleet of gambling ships. Trial evidence showed that Moscatiello is a reputed member of New York's Gambino crime family.

Premeditated murder for financial gain is among the aggravating circumstances that can warrant a death sentence under Florida law. The jurors are to recommend to a judge what sentence to impose.

Lawyers for Dylann Roof argue in papers filed Thursday they want all documents, reports, witness statements and recordings the state plans to use in its case. The request is a fairly routine in a criminal case.

State prosecutors have said they will pursue the death penalty against Roof in the June 17 shootings of nine black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church.

Solicitor Scarlett Wilson read a statement during a Thursday afternoon news conference, just hours after filing court papers saying she would pursue the death penalty against 21-year-old Dylann Roof. She took no questions but said not all of the victims' families agreed with her decision.

But a detective who helped break the case scoffed at the appeal Monday, saying Roderick Nunley should have been put to death long ago.

Nunley and a co-defendant were accused of kidnapping Ann Harrison as she waited for a school bus in Kansas City, then raping and killing the girl in 1989. If the courts don't step in, the 50-year-old Nunley will be lethally injected at 6 p.m. Tuesday and become the sixth inmate executed this year in Missouri.